100 DIARY OF A SPORTSMAN NATURALIST 



were so entirely different from what one had been accustomed 

 to on the other side of Bengal. Here the major part of our 

 camping work was done on the rivers in boats, and at first — I 

 subsequently had a Government steam launch — native boats 

 had to be hired for the purpose. One either lived for 

 days on end in these boats or occasionally was able to 

 put up in one of the district or forest bungalows for a short 

 time when such were conveniently situated to the work. 

 But that was not often. 



Life in the boats apart from the work would have been ap- 

 pallingly monotonous, bearing in mind the awful discomfort 

 of spending several weeks cramped up in a tiny confined space, 

 had it not been for the fascinating nature of the country. 

 If one were in the tidal canals, with their black mud-banks 

 and occasional broad stretches of soft turf beyond, or out 

 in the Bay of Bengal, banks and shores were alive with bird 

 life of all kinds, curlews, plover, and a variety of sandpiper, 

 redshanks, cormorants, and so forth. Low tide or, better 

 still, at two-thirds high water was the best time for the birds, 

 and at such times the shores were a paradise for the ornitholo- 

 gist. On my last trip in these parts before a transfer took 

 me to North-West India, I had a brother officer, Mr. B. B. 

 Osmaston, c.i.e., a well-known and extremely keen authority 

 on birds with me. He was new to this part of India and 

 was amazed at the extraordinary variety of bird life, much 

 of it being, he said, strange to him. 



The cormorants and curlews were ever a source of interest 

 to me. Both extremely wary, the cormorants used to sit up 

 in low mangrove bushes on the sides of the tidal canals near 

 their entrance to the sea and either fish or rest in these 

 positions — but they ever rested with one eye open ! 



Of the curlews the largest, a handsome bird, was quite 

 common and possessed all the cunning this bird is famed 

 for. A smaller greyish one was quite good eating — anyway 

 to a hunter's appetite when in camp, the only occasions I 

 remember partaking of it. 



On the green stretches between the mud-flats plover 

 swarmed, and but little care was necessary to make a bag of 

 these birds once a flight had been marked down. Their 

 colouring was extremely well attuned to their surroundings 

 and so they were very difflcult to see before they rose from 

 the ground. The smaller waders, redshanks, etc., were legion, 

 and I was never tired of watching the banks or marge of the 



